Common questions about The Smiles Foundation's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is The Smiles Foundation a good charity? +
The Smiles Foundation scores 90 out of 100 (5 stars — Exceptional) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 99% of its spending goes to charitable activities (3-yr avg) and its accounts are up to date. That reflects how transparent and financially healthy it looks on paper — it does not measure the real-world impact of its work, so treat it as one factor alongside the cause you care about. CharityCompare never tells you where to donate.
Is The Smiles Foundation a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists The Smiles Foundation as a registered charity (charity number 1087961). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=1087961&subId=0. Check the current entry and the identity of anyone requesting money. Registration does not verify a particular appeal; Clarity Score summarises filing transparency, not programme impact.
What is The Smiles Foundation's charity number? +
The Smiles Foundation's charity number is 1087961. Check that number on the official register (Charity Commission, OSCR or CCNI) or this CharityCompare profile before you donate — scammers sometimes reuse real numbers on fake appeals.
What is The Smiles Foundation's charity rating? +
The Smiles Foundation scores 90 out of 100 on CharityCompare (5 stars — Exceptional). The Clarity Score (method v1.1) sums four pillars from UK regulator filings: Accountability & Transparency (40 pts), Financial Health (30), Financial Efficiency (20), and Community Support (10). Stars use the same bands as those labels — 90+ is 5★ Exceptional. It is not an impact ranking.
Does The Smiles Foundation have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for The Smiles Foundation. Instead you get a filing-based Clarity Score, cause spend, reserves and red flags such as late accounts (none flagged on this profile). For formal complaints about a charity, contact the Charity Commission, OSCR, CCNI or the Fundraising Regulator as appropriate.
How much of my donation reaches The Smiles Foundation? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 99% of The Smiles Foundation's total spending went to charitable activities (3-yr avg across disclosed years). That is the closest official figure to "how much of your donation reaches the cause" — it is an average across all spending in the filing, not a pound-by-pound breakdown of an individual gift.
What are The Smiles Foundation's overheads? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 0% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 0% of expenditure (2022–2024, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at The Smiles Foundation. The Smiles Foundation's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2024 reports no employees paid more than £60,000. Individual salaries, including the chief executive's, are disclosed in the trustees' annual report rather than on the register.
How much income does The Smiles Foundation receive? +
The Smiles Foundation reported £725k total income in its 2024 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: growing.
Are The Smiles Foundation's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: up to date (last filing 2025-10-27). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is The Smiles Foundation based? +
The Smiles Foundation's registered contact address is in Bolton (BL9 5QW). It tells the regulator it operates in Leeds City, Romania, with a focus on international aid.
How much is The Smiles Foundation's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. The Smiles Foundation's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2024 reports no employees paid more than £60,000. Charities normally disclose the chief executive's pay, or the pay of their highest-paid staff, in the remuneration note of the trustees' annual report and accounts.
Where does The Smiles Foundation's money come from? +
The Smiles Foundation reported £725k total income for the year ending 31 December 2024. The largest sources were charitable activities £443k (61%), donations and legacies £281k (39%), trading and fundraising events £925 (0%). Legacies (gifts in wills) contributed £37k.
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to The Smiles Foundation? +
The register records The Smiles Foundation as registered with HMRC for Gift Aid, so a UK taxpayer can usually add 25p to every £1 they give by making a Gift Aid declaration.
Are The Smiles Foundation's trustees paid? +
The Smiles Foundation's annual return for the year ending 31 December 2024 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.
When was The Smiles Foundation registered as a charity? +
The Smiles Foundation was entered on the register on 10 August 2001.
How does CharityCompare score The Smiles Foundation? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in The Smiles Foundation's regulator filings: Accountability & Transparency (40 points — filing history, trustees, policies), Financial Health (30 — reserves, income trend, debt), Financial Efficiency (20 — cause spend and fundraising cost, on a graduated scale) and Community Support (10 — volunteer-to-staff ratio). An open statutory inquiry scores 0. The score measures reporting on paper, not programme impact. CharityCompare is free for donors, takes no commission on donations, and scores cannot be bought.
How often is this page updated? +
This profile was last updated on 6 September 2026 from the latest UK regulator data available to CharityCompare, and The Smiles Foundation's most recent accounts cover 2024. Scores and figures refresh whenever we re-ingest the register, so the page reflects our latest data pull rather than a one-off review.